The noble and magnificent house of Hufflepuff
by insert-original-name-here
Summary: Scorpius has been sorted into Hufflepuff and Teddy briefly explains its brilliance. Oneshot.


**Basically what it says in the summary. Also I wrote it by hand late last night and then typed it today, and only really wrote it at all because I was having trouble writing my original story so sorry if it's crazy/other problems. I don't own Harry Potter and reviews are appreciated.**

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Really, he should have been doing homework. Scorpius didn't think you were supposed to collapse under the weight of an essay in your first week. Especially when you were only two sentences in.

But then, he hadn't realised there would be so many essays to do by the middle of the first week.

That, he told himself, was the reason he had given up and let his head fall forwards onto his books in defeat. Maybe that wasn't the only reason but at least, he decided, he had managed to actually get to the library and start working. It was more than most of his year had done.

"Hey," he was jolted up by the voice to see a man he didn't recognise standing at a bookshelf.

"Are – you a teacher?" Scorpius had thought he more or less knew at least who all the teachers were.

The man met his question with half a laugh. "God, no. I'm here because the Hogwarts library has an extensive selection of books on subjects which fascinate me," he laughed again, light and easy, and Scorpius spared a brief thought to wonder who he was before letting his head fall back onto the desk. "Well, more that the subjects are necessary for my life to fascinate me, but whatever,"

Maybe Scorpius should have asked what life that was supposed to be. It probably would've been the polite thing to do, but before he'd motivated himself enough to speak his apparent new acquaintance had slipped a book from the shelf and swung his leg over the chair opposite, leaning across the table to look at Scorpius. With him this close, the younger boy wondered if there was something vaguely familiar about him.

"What's the problem?" Whatever it was, there was certainly something vaguely intrusive about him. And something accurate. Good at noticing problems. Or something.

Really he could have denied there being a problem. Or just said schoolwork. That definitely was a problem. "I'm a Hufflepuff," it felt odd to say those words.

"Brilliant. So am I. Congratulations. You're my housemate," _Damn._ He hadn't thought of that as a possibility. "What's wrong with that?"

He went with the thing that was really wrong with it, wondering why he was talking to an almost-stranger about this at all "I'm also a Malfoy,"

"Scorpius?" Scorpius nodded. It wasn't out of the ordinary that people knew who he was. The Malfoys were well-known enough. "Then you're also a Greengrass. Whatever the hell they're supposed to do. And you're part of the noble and magnificent house of Black,"

All of which were known Slytherin families. Scorpius couldn't help but wonder if this was supposed to be helping. "What's so great about the noble and magnificent house of Black anyway?"

"I'm in it," the answer was simple enough, and it cleared up who the mildly intrusive library attender was. Teddy Lupin: it made sense. Scorpius had seen him a few times (although maybe not looking exactly like he did now) and knew they were related. From what he had heard, that was a good enough reason for the house of Black's magnificence. "And I'm also in Hufflepuff, so we can logically assume that Hufflepuff is also noble and magnificent. And that Slytherin families can turn out magnificently in Hufflepuff,"

"But I'm a Malfoy," this time Teddy didn't say anything. "And my father says Hufflepuffs are stupid. And that they only get put there because they're not good enough for any of the other houses. And that if you get put in Hufflepuff you might as well not go to school at all. Or that it would be better not to, because it's so embarrassing," Admittedly, he hadn't thought Scorpius would be in Hufflepuff when he'd said any of those things. Or said any of them since his son had been put there. But then he hadn't said a lot about Hufflepuff since Scorpius had arrived at school.

"You think being patient and just is stupid? And loyal? Who's going to sort out all the other houses' messes if not someone patient and just? We display the traits of our founder – who, incidentally, is better than all the other founders – and that doesn't mean we're not good enough for any of the other houses. If anything it means we're too good for them; it means we see that everyone is good enough even when the other houses are too stupid to notice,"

_Whatever. _"Um. OK,"

Teddy's lips tugged into a light, playful smile. "Careful Scorpius. You're insulting my house, and my mother's." He met Scorpius' eyes again, as if he was trying to work something out. "And my – whatever… cousin. Thing. Whatever you are,"

_Smooth. _"Second," Scorpius muttered, but he couldn't help the smile trying to spread across his face.

"Hm?"

"Er. I'm your second cousin. My grandmother's your – our grandmothers are sisters,"

Teddy laughed again and walked out of the library, book in hand. "See you, cousin,"


End file.
